The “Mad-about lace-Men” Blouse

MadMen was featured on Sew Weekly 2 weeks ago. Truth to be told, I haven’t really sat down and watch the drama in its entirety but I know I love almost every single dress from the show. School was mad busy that week – I spent most of my time finishing tons of readings for a 4000-word literature review – yet I was very much distracted by the theme!

The Inspiration
While compiling a list of favourite MadMen outfits in between my reading breaks, I chanced upon the MadMen Collection by Banana Republic. THEY ARE TO DIE FOR!!! It has a slightly modern take on the 60s fashion. I would love to own every single piece! I finally decided on this lace number because it screams me. It’s LACE and I just happened to have enough lace in my stash. One brownie point for using up fabrics from the stash

The Blouse
The pattern is modified from my bodice block with minimal allowance. It got to be the most fitting blouse I’ve ever made. I usually add about 1-1.5cm of allowance at the waist. I also cut in about 3cm at the sleeves.

If you want the blouse to be fitting and your body is heavier at the top, you may want to include the bust darts, or transfer them to the waist, for a better fit. If not, there may be pulling at the sides.

The Fabric
The blouse is made of japanese lace from my usual local store at Chinatown. It is a little on the expensive side, SGD 16/yard, but really sturdy lace. Sturdy because it doesn’t slip (it’s the satin lining that slipped like mad), doesn’t stretch, and very crisp to cut. It would be a little more perfect if the the floral motifs are denser, like the original BR piece.

The lining is also from the stash (another brownie point!), which I bought from Muar 2 years back. It feels sturdier than the usual satin lining but less flimsy than duchess.

Notions
Other than the lace and MadMen inspiration behind the designs, I really love the oriental button attached at the back. Initially, I intended to use a zipper at the back of the blouse, but it didn’t work out. The neck opening was too small for me to zip downwards and I will not be able to squeeze into the blouse if I zip upwards. So I joined my back pieces and made an opening big enough for my head to get through. I wanted to combine both my favourite things together – the lace, and pearls – but couldn’t find a pretty pearl button and settled on a lilac oriental instead (another of my favourite!).

Project #5.1 – Little Miss Lace

I began working on my fifth project for the Intermediate course last week. Drafted the pattern last lesson and bought THE black lace today, finally. It was my most difficult buy ever! Between last lesson and today, I have combed the entire Arab Street, TY and Chinatown in search for the perfect black lace. To cut the long story short, laces are not cheap at all, at least for the decent quality laces. Those from Arab Street were very very pretty but way off my budget. The boyf didn’t like those from TY. He says the flowers look like spiders. I don’t have photos to show but imagine a large flower with those twirly wirly, quasi spider legs. That leaves me with Chinatown. “Die-die must buy” before class if not I have nothing to work with in class today! It was another long story at Chinatown but I finally settled on this piece of French lace:

Pretty, isn’t it?

I am really picky about laces because not all of them are nice. Some are dense, some are sparse (in terms of the arrangement of the motifs). Some have large flowers, others have small ones. The floral motifs are different too. The nice ones are usually expensive but I don’t want to settle on a cheap, ugly piece. Not easy to find a balance and meet all my requirements.

See what I mean?

Enough of my lacey storey. I am very excited about this project (when am I not?) because

#1 I’m using lace. Black lace, which is my favourite.
#2 It’s a Duchess-of-Cambridge’s-Wedding-Dress inspired number! Sans the long sleeves and length. It will be knee length, with dropped cap-sleeve.

Given my hectic school schedule, I really hope to complete it by end of the year for an event.

I was reading through my blog and realised there has been no updates of my previous two projects. Project #3 and #4 are long completed but I have yet to have opportunities to wear them out. Photos update soon, I hope!

“Black Beauty” Skirt

Project #7 is finally completed!! Boy, this is one difficult skirt. The pattern is a very straightforward half-circle skirt (you can figure out the pattern by doing some simple math) and the construction was (supposed to be) easy. Nightmare didn’t come until I had to tidy up the hem: it was not aligned/balanced. I attempted to trim it but it became worse. It doesn’t help when the lace-like material is slightly stretchy and satin is slippery by nature. After leaving in my stash for a few weeks, I finally sent it to A&E: consult my teacher!

First she trimmed the black lace (I trimmed both the lining and lace together as I planned to bias tape the hem). Then I had a thought, should I make the lining longer or shorter than the lace. After I neatened the black piece, I made the entire class vote :p The response didn’t help much: 50-50. Since I can shortened it if I don’t fancy the longer version, I decided to leave the lining hanging out. Then came another problem, the “extra” lining at the side seams was only 2cm long, while I have about 5cm worth at the centre of the skirt. We took advantage of the imbalance and voila! Not the perfect skirt and what I planned to sew initially, but I am loving this incidental piece more!

Oh and nope, the skirt don’t fit in to any themes from Sew Weekly.

Fabric: Black lace-like material (SGD$15?/yard. I can’t remember how much I bought it), champagne pink satin lining (SGD$5/yard), and rose silk from stash
Notions: Invisible zipper, 2 pairs of hook and eye
Time to complete: 7 hours (including teacher’s help)
First worn: July 2011
Wear again? It’s my favourite black skirt!

Total Cost: SGD 21

Lesson learned: handle slippery fabric such as satin with much care. It probably slipped when I was sewing, hence the unaligned hem.